I used a helpful write up on how to align the hood but for some reason I'm still not getting there ...

I finally got the hood to close and sit pretty flush and pretty even on the gaps at the sides, but I have a large gap in the front driver side and then a large gap in the rear passenger side ... When I try and bring the hood forward on the front driver's side, and at the same time push the hood towards the rear of the passenger side, I then lose the nice fit on the sides and the hood then wants to hit the fenders ...

Do I just need to get these gaps fixed (front driver and rear passenger) and then adjust the fenders to allow for the gaps from the fender to the hood ??? If so, what's the best way to adjust the fenders ...

Can someone please take a look at these pics and offer some help ... Thanks

I am by no means an expert, but it looks like the front fenders themselves are misaligned. It appears that if you could bring front of the driver's side fender toward the passenger side a bit, you could then also realign the hood to get a better fit.

If you look at the gap between the driver's side fender and the cowl panel (the panel the wipers go through) the gap seems to widen as you go toward the front of the car.

Aside from the fact this should have been done prior to paint, your nose is racked- (parrallelagram instead of a square). Loosen the radiator support mounting bolts cowl panel bolts and the top rear fender to cowl bolts. You may have to loosen the header panel bolts. I say "may" because I am not there and did not shoot the car and easier to do in person as opposed to not. Except for rad. supp. mounting bolts just loosen--not wobbly loose. Rack the nose over and tighten the radiator support mounting bolts. Easier w/ 2 but can be done alone. Disregard the cowl panel, that is fitted last because of obvious greater ease of adjusment. Adjust your hood now. When satisfied, position cowl panel and tighten. Voila.

Edit addition: I know it's obvious but please be careful of the header to fender paint.

Aside from the fact this should have been done prior to paint, your nose is racked- (parrallelagram instead of a square). Loosen the radiator support mounting bolts cowl panel bolts and the top rear fender to cowl bolts. You may have to loosen the header panel bolts. I say "may" because I am not there and did not shoot the car and easier to do in person as opposed to not. Except for rad. supp. mounting bolts just loosen--not wobbly loose. Rack the nose over and tighten the radiator support mounting bolts. Easier w/ 2 but can be done alone. Disregard the cowl panel, that is fitted last because of obvious greater ease of adjusment. Adjust your hood now. When satisfied, position cowl panel and tighten. Voila.

Edit addition: I know it's obvious but please be careful of the header to fender paint.

Aside from the fact this should have been done prior to paint, your nose is racked- (parrallelagram instead of a square). Loosen the radiator support mounting bolts cowl panel bolts and the top rear fender to cowl bolts. You may have to loosen the header panel bolts. I say "may" because I am not there and did not shoot the car and easier to do in person as opposed to not. Except for rad. supp. mounting bolts just loosen--not wobbly loose. Rack the nose over and tighten the radiator support mounting bolts. Easier w/ 2 but can be done alone. Disregard the cowl panel, that is fitted last because of obvious greater ease of adjusment. Adjust your hood now. When satisfied, position cowl panel and tighten. Voila.

Edit addition: I know it's obvious but please be careful of the header to fender paint.

Thanks ... What's strange to me is that everything appeared to line up well after paint and assembly ... Since then I've probably thrown things off when installing all the goodies under the hood including the intercooler up front ... (front clip was removed when the engine was installed as well as the intercooler) ... today I remove the hood to trim some of the support bracing for clearance of the blower, hat, and intercooler piping ...

I have the same problem with my 69 except the opposite sides or shall I say direction. Any way I will keep a close watch on this thread . I was thinking about pulling one fender forward and then slide the hood forward and then adjust the cowel to match.

I would just add that I used several layers of painters masking tape to tape the edges of the hood, fenders, and cowl panel when I was messing with this adjustment...this will help protect the paint edges. You may have to remove a few shims from the firewall mount of the drivers side fender to allow it to move back.

Another thing that I'd like to add ... When I got the car back from body/paint ... everything lined up great ... hood included ... I've never loosened the cowl to fender bolts since I've had the car back but I have removed the front upper & lower valences and radiator support to install the motor as well as other goodies ...

Could I rotate the front end over slightly by just loosening the radiator support upper and lower bolts and then giving a little push or two?

Tim you could try it. Just loosening the Rad. Sup. bolts that is. If you have to loosen the fender to cowl bolts make sure fender to jamb and lower fender bolts are tight. This will hold your door/fender gaps. Leave shims in place. It's easier to take a shim out than to open a door gap and add a shim to a painted car. It should rack over, then tighten all bolts well. Door gap changes will be negligable. Nose is being pivoted, not changed longitudinally.

Holding gaps sometimes requires the cooperation of all mounting points as you found out. Removing radiator support and header allowed the nose to spring back. In time your nose will "solidify".

For example: Car on lift, 16 year old paint, hasn't seen the road yet - clip minus hood left in place - dropped complete subframe - re-installed subframe - all gaps maintained without adjustment.

Tim, I had the exact same problem with the front of my 69. The nose needed to be moved to the passenger side about 1 inch. It wasn't that easy to move. The inner fenders, inner fender rear supports and the attachments of the fender to the fire wall and door jam make the fender very rigid when all the bolts are tight. I had to loosen all of those things and then still use a long rachet extention up through the radiator support holes to pry it over. I also found that the door gaps changed as the fenders tended to pivot at the fire wall mount even though the bolts were loose. I had to regap the fenders to the doors when I was done. I found the the driver side gap opened and the passenger side closed. Tape up your door edges, and the header to fender gap and go in small steps. Be carefull opening the doors until you are sure of the gap. Hope this helps.

So much easier to be there and do it than to remember every detail. Take off the fender support bars too although I'm sure you already have. Like a lot of guys here I've only done about 15 or so of these cars, not to mention major collision work. So the process just gets taken for granted. Add John's advice as well, loosening hold points in steps as needed. You only have to go half the error distance. And you already had it right once. If I could do one alone a week away from surgery and imminent death you'll get this one. What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger.

Just wanted to give everyone an update ... in case others run into the same problem down the road ...

About 2 weekends ago I got everything "squared" away ...

What I did to correct the problem was loosen all of the front end bolts (rad. support, inner fenders, etc...) and shifted/moved the radiator support towards the passenger side. This wasn't easy to move, I couldn't really get a good method of prying it over (without damaging something) ... until I finally had a vision )

I used some of those Ratcheting tie-down straps to move the front end over.

I looped one end around the lower radiator support bushing/bolt combo on the driver's side and the other end around the passenger side subframe ... Then I began ratcheting and ratcheting with a lot of force until it had successfully moved over ... I then used another strap and did the same thing for some added force. Finally I tightened everything down and loosened the straps ... All is good ... worked great and no damage ...

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